Summer and sunshine - and sadness

I arrived back in Bavorov on 15th June this year, full of enthusiasm and ready to open Small Worlds for the summer season on the 18th.   Something of a rush, I know, but really all that needed to be done urgently was to change the window display, still full of autumn mushrooms as I had left it at the end of last September, and unpack many of the items I had collected throughout the winter from charity shops and ebay in the UK.   I had also been lucky enough to receive gifts for Small Worlds, and they too needed to be photographed and acknowledged. 

I was delaying a blogpost until all of this had been accomplished but I had not reckoned with the devastating effect on me of the result of the referendum on 23rd June.   It has been so overwhelming that it would be wrong of me not to at least mention it.   It wiped out any desire to do anything for several days.   Others have expressed my feelings more eloquently than I can so I will content myself with linking to them here and here, so that those of you who do not share my feelings can just ignore it,  and I can take myself back into my controllable world of small things, since the real world is collapsing around me.

I remember when I first got involved in the dolls house hobby that people used to ask me why I did it.   My reply then was that I had a job which involved trying to help people resolve intractable problems in their lives, things over which they often had no control.   The world of miniatures is a controllable world - just as the text on my flyers, written by Ruth Allen three years ago, so coherently says:  

Do you remember when you were little? I mean really little, when everything in the grown-up world was too big for you, and it seemed there was always someone bigger telling you where to go, what to do … and then someone gave you a dolls house, or a model garage. Or perhaps a train set or puppet theatre.  

Maybe your Mum or Dad made it for you, maybe a kind aunt or uncle bought it, perhaps it was handed down from another member of the family. 

No matter. Suddenly there was this small world where you made the decisions; decided where everything went, and what they should do......

I feel very blessed that I can still enjoy this hobby, nearly forty years on and that I am now in a position to share it with others.

The day after I got back this year, I whisked the autumn window away and replaced it with a seaside scene, based on an extended version of the shell shop that I wrote about last July.   Sadly, as usual, photos of window displays are not entirely successful.....

In the smaller window I placed a little homage to my mother, who not long after she was widowed, fulfilled a fervent wish to own a Jaguar, a make of car to which she remained faithful for the rest of her life.

Backing onto the Jags, and facing into the museum, I stood a noticeboard displaying greetings cards made by a friend in England, Pat Klijn.  They are beautiful and quirky collages and I hope to sell some for her over here.....


Pat has also been instrumental in acquiring a miner's cottage (seen here in the Beamish Open Air Museum) for me which is currently under construction by the skilful Colin Rose, who built the Czech village house in Small Worlds, to which he has recently added a beautifully tiled roof - a photo of the tiling next time.  

And much more of the miner's cottage next year.....

Having sorted the display, I spread out a lot of the things that I had brought with me, keeping back some surprises that are going to appear in the window during the summer - I don't want to leave the shell shop there too long as the sun beats very strongly onto that side of the building, and colours fade rapidly. 


Here you have an overview of some of my new acquisitions......





...and a close-up of three new chairs from the Take a Seat by Raine Designs collection, many of which are already to be found scattered amongst the houses in Small Worlds.   

There will be more of Raine Designs to come later in the summer.....

Much new china and glass has arrived  









Some very exotic animals 




And a large number of odds and ends - just a small sample here....





My particular thanks to Lynda for her stunning creation of glass jars brimming with liquorice allsorts - sharp-eyed readers should be able to spot one in the photos above - to Noreen for much lovely china and glass, amongst other things, and to Rose for some of the exotica including the delightful binoculars which have already found a home in the Colonial bungalow.
Now all I have to do is find a home for everything else!   

I shall be back very soon with a further report on the summer events in Small Worlds but in the meantime, before I settle down to watch a DVD of Dr Who, I'd like to leave you with a delightful model created by the daughter of Milena the Milliner, who is responsible for the many wonderful hats in Small Worlds - a fully functioning (well almost) Tardis, made out of a plastic bottle..... 

Sadly I am no better at photographing flashing lights than I am at dealing with reflections in windows!

Thank you for visiting my blog after such a long gap - I shall be back soon with more news from the controllable universe of Small Worlds.

A little learning......

...is a dangerous thing, as the saying goes.   Quite how dangerous it might be we will learn later on.

But I must start with some sad news - in my last post I once again lauded the work of Sheila and Norman Randall and their contribution to Small Worlds.   Norman died many years ago and sadly, in February this year, so too did Sheila.   

It is an abiding sadness to me that she never saw Small Worlds - a planned trip two years ago had to be cancelled because of illness and she never again became well enough to travel.   I owe so much to both the Randalls and one of the last things Sheila sent me was this enchanting tiny dress which she found her younger granddaughter trying to insert a toy dog into.

She hastily came to its rescue, washed it carefully, and despatched it to me.   It is the only example of her knitting, other than the Sasha dress, that I have in England.   I shall miss her.

At the end of my last post I promised further glimpses into the lives of the dolls, and others, occupying the chaise-longue in my bedroom.   So I wove a little tale around the two remaining Victorian females.....

Scene 1:  Picture a schoolroom, complete with strict governess, attentive pupil, and all the paraphernalia of learning......

I asked my granddaughter to write something on the blackboard for me - I have never been able to manage chalk.   She has clearly never heard the views of a well-known Victorian educationist who said, when talking of an examination which included mathematics, "I believe that we should have half the young women in the country in brain fever or a lunatic asylum if they were to make up their minds to try for it".   

Clearly this young governess has survived unscathed.

Her pupil, however, seems quite pleased not to be risking the equation at the moment.   She is instead attempting to emulate Beatrix Potter, whose fungi paintings remain unsurpassed to this day.

As befits all schoolrooms, there is a plentiful supply of interesting books 

Some more interesting than others perhaps....

......and even a reminder of the early stages of learning to read...

Happy Days!

Cut to Scene 2 however.....

Who can this be, reclining on the chaise-longue with flowing locks and silky satin dress?  Can her erst-while pupil actually be kneeling in supplication?   Well, not quite, but the relationship between them has certainly changed.   Miss Prissy Prim has ensnared her pupil's father, whose only fault was to seek to find a caring mother for his growing child.  

Little did he know that the lady had a firm dislike of children, despite the profession into which she had been forced by circumstance.   For the moment she is biding her time.  The little Griselda is still being treated well, allowed to accompany her stepmama to church, both dressed in their finery. 

She is even allowed, on occasion, to make much of stepmama's dog - clearly a cross between a Newfoundland and a lapdog.

But I fear it will not be long before the former Miss Prissy Prim shows herself in her true colours - paying little attention to her stepdaughter, but revelling in the silks and satins of her new station in life.

Perhaps she will not have it all her own way though?   Griselda clearly has a mind of her own.   

"If she can show off what is on the underneath, then so can I!" 

                              I only hope this story has a happy ending.....

And finally, I leave you with the last two inhabitants of that end of my bedroom.   With the best will in the world, I could find no way of incorporating a scatty lamb and a white bear into the tale, so here they are, just bidding you goodbye and thanking you for following thus far.

See you again soon I hope.

A slightly larger world.....

Yet another month has passed without a word from me.   I came back to the UK armed with photos so that I could write blogposts about Small Worlds even when far from the coasts of Bohemia.   But somehow it doesn't seem to work like that.

Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but it also makes the writing harder!   So I looked around for some more local inspiration and found it no further away than the foot of my English bed.....



My bedroom here doubles as a playroom for when the grandchildren visit - Sylvanian dolls houses and animals under the window....

.....a wooden clothes horse full of string puppets from a Czech street market...

.....now sheltered by a giant ficus - more of them another time perhaps -

.....a baby doll in a high chair, complete with attendant animals,  










and, tucked cosily in front of the Victorian fireplace, a family of dolls.   Not tiny dolls house dolls, but proper doll-size dolls.   Well, what I think of as doll-size anyway.

These are not actually intended for children's play.   They mainly belong to my daughter but are allowed to grace my bedroom as she has no space to display them herself.





They sit on a "Victorian" chaise longue...

..and the setup always rather reminds me of the photo of my mother with her family of dolls, taken in about 1920, which now stands on the mantelpiece in my bedroom.




So in this blogpost I thought I would introduce you to the family of Sasha dolls.   Ours have been with us for more than 35 years but they were first made in Britain in 1966, a year after they were first produced in Germany.   The German dolls have differently painted faces - our family of dolls is all British.

The family consists of Sasha and Gregor with three babies, from left to right, Kim, Robin, and Nikki.   You will note the careful choice of the babies' names.  Boy or girl, take your pick.  

Sadly our family is still incomplete - we are lacking a redheaded Sasha.   But we can always hope!



When I decided on a photoshoot I enlisted the help of my granddaughter, who was thrilled to at last be given a chance to play with them.   She is responsible for most of the following poses.....

In this photo Sasha is wearing her original outfit of a blue gingham dress but Gregor has clearly been given a handmade sweater for Christmas'

In this family group picture, however, he is once again sporting his football kit, which is what he was wearing when he joined the household. 

Though whose are those jeans he is wearing?  Should be shorts.

I am not quite certain of the provenance of Sasha's delightful dress but I have a suspicion that it is another creation by Sheila Randall, whose husband Norman was responsible for so many of the houses in Small Worlds.

Sheila herself is a highly skilled knitter of tiny garments which are on display in the museum.

I think this pose simply has to be captioned "Bring it on!"

Three little maids?  Or lads?

"It was this big! Honestly....."

And goodbye for now....







The sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed two more dolls on the chaise-longue, and, indeed, some animals as well.  Which means that there will be a part two to this glimpse into a slightly larger world.....

Thank you for joining me.   I hope you have enjoyed it so far and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Season's Greetings from Small Worlds

Wishing you a joyous Christmas and a peaceful 2016

May we share many more miniature adventures together!

Anyone enjoying a visit to Bavorov this Christmas will find this greeting waiting for them in the window of Small Worlds.    Sadly most of you following my posts may never make it to my village in the Czech Republic, but I am so glad that you are still following my museum journey and should like to wish you all the very best this Christmas and for the forthcoming year.  

PS - A Christmas Coincidence.....

Just after I put this post up, an email arrived about a polar bear in dire straits in a zoo in Argentina.   Since this year's Small Worlds card was actually developed out of finding the polar bear in a charity shop, I thought that for once I would put up a link to a petition,something I would not normally do.   But after all, it is Christmas!

So if you would like to support the campaign for Arturo to be moved to a more suitable environment, please click here.   And should you actually want to adopt a polar bear you can do so through the World Wild Life Fund......

Once again - Happy Christmas!

A Winter Songfeast....

Being back in the UK is certainly very bad for me when it comes to writing blogposts.   Contrary to the saying, distance from Small Worlds does not seem to make the heart grow fonder, and although I armed myself with several sets of photos so that I could write posts even when hundreds of miles away, sadly it doesn't seem to work like that.

So my apologies for the silence since September.   Small Worlds is in fact not completely forgotten when I am back in England because I spend many hours trawling charity shops (goodwill stores for those across the ocean) looking for both miniature items, and things that I can "repurpose".   There are hardly any such shops in the Czech Republic so I have to make the most of my opportunities when here.   Well, that's my excuse for the number of bags and boxes that are rapidly filling up our tiny cottage, and I am sticking to it!

But even while I am in England there is something new to see in Small Worlds - and I have photos to prove it!  Although I realised when I looked at them that there is no making at all involved in it.   No repurposing either.  Just a seasonal scene......


Advent Sunday has just passed, St Nicholas Day is imminent, and so too is the annual Winter Songfeast. What better subject therefore than a troop of carol singers?


These delightful little dolls have been in my possession for longer than I care to remember.   I suspect I bought them in the post- Christmas sale at our local garden centre, Van Hages, a source of very many of our Christmas decorations over the years.

In their time they have played many parts - customers in a Christmas shop, relaxing in a Small Worlds Lada scene two years ago, 







and last year out in full force carolling away to the residents of the Victorian Walmer house whilst they in their turn celebrated a merry Christmas.

This year they have gathered around the village Christmas tree and, since there is a lot of snow already, those who don't feel like singing can simply enjoy themselves. 

Oh dear - that sounds as if I think that singing is not an enjoyable activity, which in the week of the annual Winter Songfeast is the last thing that I mean! On Saturday 5th December I shall be together with many friends in Cuffley, Herts, singing "a succulent selection of songs to celebrate the season, bringing warmth and harmony to the darkening year" led by Andrea Small who many of you will know as an avid -and not always entirely helpful, since her suggestions are often more than challenging - commentator on this blog.  There is still time to come along and join us - click on Andrea's name to find out how.






No snow here in Hertfordshire at the moment, but more than enough in Small Worlds to build some snowmen.   It looks as if the yellow-hatted one is actually singing along! 

Taking her ease in the horse-drawn sleigh, there is a new addition to the group...

...one of four little dolls given to me by Jana who does sterling work as the translator of the information labels on all the houses in Small Worlds.   Taking visitors round would have been much harder for me in the early days without her faithful rendering of my words into Czech - I could just pick up a label and read it off!  The same goes for my young helper, Veronika, who sometimes has recourse to the English version.





No Christmas scene would be complete without a crib (probably hard to find a much smaller one than this!).







Or, of course, Father Christmas...

Visitors to Small Worlds on Saturday 12th December, when it will be open from 8.30 to 12.30 to coincide with the Christmas Farmers' Market, will be able to enjoy the scene in person.   I am grateful to another Jana who, together with Veronika, has manned the museum for the past two Farmers' Markets and may be there again on the 12th.   If not her, then her niece Pavla.....my thanks to all of them.

I shall be back with one more post before Christmas but in the meantime I leave you with just a few more photos of fun in the snow and all good wishes for a peaceful Advent season to everyone.   

Oh and a postscript to say that Butterfly has been playing with a Small World too today - go and take a peek through the square window.....